Monthly Archives: July 2014

Kill Order By James Dashner
The Raven Boys By Maggie Stiefvater
To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee
Ironside By Holly Black
Poison Study Series By Maria V. Snyder
The World After By Susan Ee
The Dark Divine By Bree Despain
Blue Bloods By Melissa de la Cruz
I am Number Four By Pittacus Lore
The Book Thief By Markus Zusak
The Knife of Never Letting Go By Patrick Ness
Dark Heart Forever By Lee Monroe
Passion By Lauren Kate
Torment By Lauren Kate
The Iron Queen By Julie Kawaga
The Iron Knight By Julie Kawaga
The Iron King By Julie Kawaga
The Iron Daughter By Julie Kawaga
Abandon By Meg Cabot
Girl about Time By Kirsten Gier
The Summoning By Kelley Armstrong
I capture the castle By Dodie Scmith
The Medusa Series By Sophie McKenzie
Virals By Kathy Reich
The Fire By James Patterson
Uglies By Scott Westerfield
Split Second By Sophie McKenzie
Planet Urth By Jennifer Martucci

This book was really good. I have had it on my book shelves for ages and only decided to read it recently because a friend told me they had really enjoyed it. I’m so glad she encouraged me to pick it up, as I read in about 3 days.

I love the characters in this book, especially Cassie who is so strong and determined. She has only one goal, she doesn’t want to save the world, just her little brother. This book is really original, recently there seems as of there have been an awful lot of seemly similar dystopian books, however this one definitely stands out.

The only the negative thing I can say about this book is that at the beginning the change of POVs was confusing, however it was really interesting to hear from different characters especially when they weren’t all in the same place. This book also has some great quotes and really makes you think about what it means to be human and what you would do to survive.

Before I die

As I was forewarned, this book did make me cry. Many people compare John Green’s The Fault in our Stars to this book and I must say I prefer The Fault in our Stars. Although that is not to say Before I die is not a good book, but I just found that I related to the character of Hazel more than I did Tessa.

However this book is very thought provoking and I love the fact that Tessa isn’t perfect. She’s scared of dying and she’s sometimes angry at her friends and family. She is confused and upset, yet despite the fact that she is dying, she embodies all that it means to be alive. She is one of the most beautifully complex characters I have read about in a while.

This book really helps to remind you how lucky you are to be alive. I would definitely recommend this book to any adult that wants to remember what it means to be young and alive and to any teenager who has also forgotten. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a soft spot for real, yet beautifully complex characters like I do.

I really enjoyed this book. I think John Green is an amazing author and loved the Fault in our Stars, however I did find Looking for Alaska kind of disappointing. This book is very different to the other two John Green books that I have read, but like the others it handles some difficult topics.
The characters in this book are very interesting and complex although nothing less is to be expected from John Green. Each character is so clearly flawed, yet also likeable. They are realistic. I love Q, Radar and Ben’s friendship and I love the way everyone sees Margo differently.

Maybe its like you said before, all of us being cracked open. Like each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And then things happen – these people leave us, or don’t love us, or don’t get us, or we don’t get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack in places. And I mean, yeah once the vessel cracks open, the end becomes inevitable. Once it starts to rain inside the Osprey, it will never be remodeled. But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And its only that time that we see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face to face? Not until you saw into my cracks and I saw into yours. Before that we were just looking at ideas of each other, like looking at your window shade, but never seeing inside. But once the vessel cracks, the light can get in. The light can get out.

This quote is beautiful and so true. This is what I love about John Green, he does not simply write, he paints the most beautiful pictures with his words. As well as being so thought provoking and deep, John Green is absolutely hilarious. All his novels are funny, however this one was not tinged with sadness like the others. I would definitely recommend this book.

Thanks to Girl in the pages for reviewing this books so brilliantly. After reading her review and went and ordered it off Amazon, because it sounded like a book I would love. I had read the entire book less than a week after reading her review (bearing in mind that this time includes the time taken for it to be posted to me) I actually read the entire book in day.

I absolutely love Penryn. She is awesome, she is a strong badass female heroine who is sassy and determined. Her love for her sister rivals Katniss’. She does remind me of Katniss, with the sister she is determined to protect and a mother with a mental illness who she finds difficult to love at times in a world that is falling apart. However unlike Katniss she doesn’t worry about annoying love triangles and is easy to connect with on an emotional level.
I did like Raffe as well. His and Penryn’s relationship is great. There is no frustrating insta-love. They start off as enemies and over the course of the book begin to bond. Even at the end of the book, they haven’t announced their undying love and started planning their wedding, which is refreshing.
I also really the angels. If we’re all being honest, the angel genre is just not that great at the moment, and I hope Angelfall will help to turn the genre around. The angels in this book aren’t perfect, loving, peaceful creatures whose only purpose seems to be love the heroine. This angels are killers, they’re tough, ruthless and nitty gritty. They’re realistic.

Thinking of bad points is a really difficult for this book. The only negative I can think of is the same as Girl in the Page’s point. This book was a bit gorier than the books I usually read. I’m not a bit fan of horror or gore as I am a bit squeamish. Although saying that, the subtle horror elements did add to the world that Susan Ee has created.

I can’t wait to read the next book, although I can’t justify buying the next book quite yet as I have just bought a pile of books. I am hoping I will get to read it soon though.

I started reading this series because I saw the movie trailer and thought the movie looked good and of course I can’t watch the movie without having read the book. I had heard of this series before the movie as some of my friends were reading out, however I wasn’t bothered for reading it. I went straight away to my friend who had read the book series and asked to borrow them from her and thankfully she lent to me.

Now because I’m lazy and I read all the books in about a week meaning they have all kind of merged together in my head, I am going to review the all three books as a series instead of reviewing each individual book. In future, I will review each book of a series separately so don’t worry.

The good points about the trilogy were:
– It had an awesomely created dystopian world, which was much darker than the usual dystopian world. It was chilling and dark, yet realistic.
– The ending was realistic, they didn’t end up saving the world and sometimes that’s what happens. There can’t always be a happy ending and I like books like that. (I know I have mentioned this before.)
– I really liked some of the characters. Minho was my favourite, I absolutely loved him! He makes me laugh and is a realistic person. He would be a great friend.
– This book also keeps you guessing, you never know what is going to happen next. You don’t know who is the bad guy and who is the good guy.
– This book is not like other dystopias, there is no focus on romance like the Hunger Games or Divergent. Thomas’ biggest worry is whether or not he can trust her, not if he’s in love with her.
– And finally a book in a male point of view was really different and refreshing.

The bad points about the trilogy were :
– I wasn’t emotionally connected to all the characters so I wasn’t upset when some of them died.
– I didn’t like Teresa. She had the potential to be a really interesting character, however she just annoyed me. She seemed really two dimensional and didn’t have much of a personality. Teresa really let the rest of the characters down.

Books that are a slightly different size to your average book so they look awkward on the shelf.

Different covers on the same series of book. When the publisher randomly decides to change the cover design in the middle of the series so the boss you own don’t all match. (I know this is similar to what other people have said, but this genuinely annoys me!)

Books that have unrealistically happy endings. Not that I don’t enjoy it when I get a happy ending for a character I love, but it annoys me when (for example) there is a war and everyone on ‘Team Good’ survives and everyone evil dies. This does not happen in real life! I don’t want characters to die, but I grew out of fairytales a while back. I know not every story ends with ‘and they all lived happily ever after’.

Describe your perfect reading spot.

I’m happy to read in most places, I’m not picky. I just pull out a book anywhere. However my favourite place to read is either in my bed or on my massive beanbag. Both are super comfy and I love to read on them, snuggled up in a soft blanket in my pjs.

Tell us your three book confessions.

I have a Kindle and like reading eBooks. (I don’t know why this is a confession, but most serious book lovers seem to frown upon e-readers.) I do prefer actual books, but books on e-readers are cheaper and e-readers are great to take on holiday when you read as much as I do.

I like reading on Wattpad. Wattpad is where I can read books by unpublished authors for free.

I have never read a proper classic book, (although I am planning on reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Does that count as a classic?)

When was the last time you cried reading a book?

I do get quite emotional when I read books and it’s not uncommon for one lone tear to slide down my face as I read a book, but the last time I properly cried reading a book, was when I read the Fault in our Stars. If you have not read, then you must do so straight away. A heartbreakingly beautiful celebration of love, life and friendship.

How many books are on your bedside table?

That’s easy, none, because I don’t have a bedside table. I sleep in a high up bed with a desk and a sofa bed underneath so I am bedside tableless. On my desk, however I currently have two books, the French version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which I am reading for the Language Freak Summer Challenge and Death Cure by James Dashner.

What is your favourite snack to eat while you’re reading?

Anything really, I don’t really eat that much when I’m reading, but I do, it has something I can eat with little concentration or effort needed on my part.

3 books I would recommend to anyone.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (after you have read the rest of the series of course! Just this book is favourite.)

Anything by Enid Blyton. I absolutely loved her books as a child and I have her to thank for my love of reading. I remember particularly enjoying her Malory Towers series.

The Hunger Games. Because Katniss was my first introduction to badass heroines in YA books.

Three words to describe what reading means to you.

There without fail. (Three words is really difficult!)

Show us a picture of your favourite shelf on your bookcase.

I don’t really have a favourite shelf, because my books are organised alphabetically by author’s surname. So here are two random shelves of my books.

My bookshelves

Who are you tagging?

Anyone who wants to, just link me up so I can stalk you and find out about your reading habits.